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General Catalyst

also referred to as: gc · general catalyst partners

includes General Catalyst Leadership Team

105 statements across 33 episodes · 45 bullish · 13 bearish · 25 people on the record · first statement Feb 5, 2015 by Niko Bonatsos · said 342 times in 126 episodes since 2015 · across every show →

Mentions by year, the whole family

brought up most by Harry Stebbings (209), Hemant Taneja (21), David Fialkow (14), Joe Thomas (7), Nitesh Banta (6), Tom Blomfield (5), Gautam Gupta (5), Phil Libin (4)

tap a year for its mentions
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01530201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
00415830201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 21 mentions in 16 episodes 1 per episode
2025 76 mentions in 29 episodes 3 per episode
2024 11 mentions in 11 episodes 1 per episode
2023 8 mentions in 6 episodes 1 per episode
2022 35 mentions in 5 episodes 7 per episode
2021 10 mentions in 6 episodes 2 per episode
2020 64 mentions in 14 episodes 5 per episode
2019 6 mentions in 3 episodes 2 per episode
2018 50 mentions in 14 episodes 4 per episode
2017 22 mentions in 9 episodes 2 per episode
2016 30 mentions in 9 episodes 3 per episode
2015 9 mentions in 4 episodes 2 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about General Catalyst, oldest first

Feb 5, 2015 positive
Insight
Bonatsos: Back founders if 5% of their vision justifies the investment
“Once in a while, you get to meet an individual that can create a reality sourcing field, and can paint a very detailed version of the future. And as soon as you hear about all this, you're like, shit, if five percent of what that person told me comes true in a…”
Niko Bonatsos Feb 5, 2015 ▶ 7:00 20 VC: Niko Bonatsos on Startup Valuations
Feb 5, 2015 neutral
Disclosure
General Catalyst hires investment team members via networks, not public ads
“Whenever, for example, here at Journal Catalyst we're looking for an investment team member, we first look into our personal networks, and then we start asking folks that we trust to refer as good candidates.”
Niko Bonatsos Feb 5, 2015 ▶ 15:16 20 VC: Niko Bonatsos on Startup Valuations
Feb 5, 2015
Insight
Bonatsos: The primary reason VCs reject startups is unripe market inflection
“Because the company and the market they're going after is not at an inflection point. As a venture capitalist, I always want to invest in a company as well as a market that is opening up very quickly.”
Niko Bonatsos Feb 5, 2015 ▶ 21:01 20 VC: Niko Bonatsos on Startup Valuations
Feb 5, 2015 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Bonatsos estimates only 1,000 reality-distorting founders receive funding yearly
“And they're probably, you know, like a thousand of them every year that get funded.”
Niko Bonatsos Feb 5, 2015 ▶ 7:25 20 VC: Niko Bonatsos on Startup Valuations
Jun 29, 2015 neutral
Disclosure
General Catalyst Had Only Made One VR Investment by Mid-2015
“VR is not a place where we have made a ton of investments yet as a firm. We have one investment on the West Coast,”
Spencer Lazar Jun 29, 2015 ▶ 19:21 20 VC 049: VC is Getting Younger with Spencer Lazar @ General Catalyst Partners
Jun 29, 2015 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Peter Boyce Drove General Catalyst Deal Flow by Organizing Student Entrepreneurs
“And that's what my colleague Peter Boyce did who now works at GC and was really an organizer of young talent, young entrepreneurial energy, and you know, has really been a huge driving force of value for our firm because he's brought a lot of that with him and…”
Spencer Lazar Jun 29, 2015 ▶ 8:29 20 VC 049: VC is Getting Younger with Spencer Lazar @ General Catalyst Partners
Jul 10, 2015
Assertion Supported
PumpUp raised a $2.4 million seed round led by General Catalyst
“So we raised a 2.4 million dollar seed round just under a year ago, led by General Catalyst partners Nico from General Catalyst led it.”
Phil Jacobson Jul 10, 2015 ▶ 12:01 Founders Friday 003: 2m users, $2m Seed Round, 220,000 Instagram Followers with Phil Jacobson, Founder @ PumpUp
Sep 16, 2015
Disclosure
FJ Labs frequently co-invests with IVP, General Catalyst, and a16z
“But the main VCs that we work with are investor venture partners General Catalyst Andreessen Horowitz we work with Redpoint and We work with the end capital in Europe, and those would be the ones we spend, that we share the most deals with”
Fabrice Grinda Sep 16, 2015 ▶ 11:02 20 VC 072: Super Angel, Fabrice Grinda: The Future of Startup Investing
Oct 21, 2016 positive
Assertion Supported
RealtyShares surpasses $200 million in funded deals with top VC backing
“RealtyShares recently announced an incredible two hundred million funded deals through the platform, so a huge congratulations to them. For that, and they've also raised funding from some of the world's best investors, including the one and only Union Square V…”
Harry Stebbings Oct 21, 2016 ▶ 0:22 20VC: Why Adaptability Is Key To Fundraising, Why Supply Is Always The First Priority In Marketplaces & Why Sometimes You Have To Hire Fast & Fire Fast with Nav Athwal, Founder & CEO @ RealtyShares
Dec 30, 2016
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Banta Evaluated Over 1,000 Startups Annually as VC Investor
“When I was an investor, I was doing, I was meeting over a thousand companies each year, and I was able to meet with so many other individuals, so that you're just kind of learning from this firehose, and in this unnatural way, starting to learn about new ideas…”
Nitesh Banta Dec 30, 2016 ▶ 8:24 20VC: How AI Can Enhance Not Replace Humans? What Will Differentiate Between The Winners & The Losers In AI? Why AGI Is Further Away Than We Think with Nitesh Banta, Founder & CEO @ B12
Feb 10, 2017
Assertion Supported
Gautam Gupta joined venture capital firm General Catalyst at age 18
“I was really, really fortunate to join General Catalyst at the age of 18, if you can believe it.”
Gautam Gupta Feb 10, 2017 ▶ 3:05 20VC: How Startups & VCs Can Build Relationships with Potential Corporate Acquirers? The Challenge Of Operating Both A B2B & B2C Business Model & Why Fundraising Is The One Element Founders Cannot Control with Gautam Gupta, Founder & CEO @ NatureBox
Jun 18, 2018 positive
Assertion Supported
Taneja: General Catalyst combines company incubation with traditional venture investing
“Our firm is the partnership encourages each other to get excited about starting companies from scratch with great founders as well, so we do so much incubation, and we do investing alongside that, that I felt like this was a great hybrid way to spend time.”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 4:06 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018
What-if
Taneja: General Catalyst should have aggressively backed 2011–2013 mega-cap companies
“You know, this notion that we are in this era where you can create 10, fifty, hundred billion dollar companies, and there were so many of them created in the 2011, 2012, 2013 time frame, or a couple years before that, that we would have been a lot more aggress…”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 6:16 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018 negative
Insight
Taneja: Exercising default pro-rata in follow-ons is a lazy posture
“And my general posture is that when you're looking at a follow-on investment in a company, you should either have the bias to do more than your parata, or you should have a bias to do less than your parata for whatever the reasons are. I think parata is a lazy…”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 14:32 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018
Insight
Taneja: VCs should only spend time where they can impact outcomes
“I only want to spend time where my time can have a true impact. Instead of spending time with companies because they're very successful and makes me feel good or trying to protect companies from failing, if my time can't make a difference in either of those, I…”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 22:01 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018 positive
Insight
Taneja: Board members must adapt to founder culture, not impose playbooks
“First and foremost is to be adaptive. I believe every great company has its own culture, its own way of doing things. The founders like to run their meetings a certain way. It's our duty to adapt to it as opposed to saying, here's my playbook and change the co…”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 16:08 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018 negative
Insight
Taneja: Price sensitivity is an excuse for missing out on great companies
“Price is an excuse that makes you rationalize not getting into great companies in my experience.”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 12:30 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: Tech VC is a decade into a 30-year golden age
“I think we're in the golden age of venture capital, and we're probably a decade into a 30 year secular shift as opposed to being in another cycle.”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 8:03 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018 neutral
Disclosure
Taneja: Snapchat was General Catalyst's last large media company investment
“In fact, as you said, Snapchat was actually the last large media company we've invested in.”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 9:58 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018
Insight
Taneja: VC expansion requires relocating existing partners over hiring local networks
“Everybody would try to find a couple of emerging investors on the West Coast that were well-connected and give them a little bit of latitude to try to build a practice. And we decided that was not what we're going to do just given the failure of that approach.…”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 6:58 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jun 18, 2018
Disclosure
Taneja: Stripe was General Catalyst's first West Coast investment
“Luckily, my first investment ended up being Stripe because I had met the Colisons while I was teaching at MIT.”
Hemant Taneja Jun 18, 2018 ▶ 5:49 20VC: General Catalyst's Hemant Taneja on Why We Are In A Golden Age For VC, Why Pro-Rata Is A Lazy Posture and Why He Does Not Focus On Price
Jul 17, 2018 positive
Opinion
Elad Gil: SoftBank Has Had the Greatest Impact of All VC Mega Funds
“I think that the sort of mega fund that's mattered the most in terms of impact is probably SoftBank, Simply because at a hundred billion dollars, SoftBank is the equivalent of a hundred general catalysts or 12 Sequoia funds. So just the sheer scale of capital …”
Elad Gil Jul 17, 2018 ▶ 26:02 20VC: Elad Gil's High Growth Handbook on The Commonalities of The Truly Great CEOs, How To Hire The Very Best Execs, Why Cash is A Defensible Moat Today & The Pros and Cons of M&A and IPOs
Nov 30, 2018
Disclosure
Blomfield: Monzo closed 2018 funding round preemptively without full process
“General Catalyst were really keen to do it preemptively. So we didn't go through an enormously drawn out fundraising process. They sort of came in with an offer that we thought was really attractive, and it saved us a time of doing a full fundraising process. …”
Tom Blomfield Nov 30, 2018 ▶ 24:19 20VC: Monzo's Tom Blomfield on The 3 Phases of Startup Scaling, The Secret To Building a 1.2m Community with No Advertising & How To Use Boards As A Tool To Instil Operational Excellence
Mar 9, 2020
Assertion Supported
Matt Mochary's coaching client list includes partners at Benchmark, Sequoia, and Kleiner
“On the VC side, Matt has worked with the likes of Peter Fenton at Benchmark, Several Sequoia partners, Hemond at GC, and Mamoon at Kleiner, to name a few. As for founders, Matt's worked with the founders of Brex, Coinbase, Plaid, Reddit, Flexport, and many mor…”
Harry Stebbings Mar 9, 2020 ▶ 0:24 20VC: Matt Mochary, Coach To Silicon Valley's Leading VCs & Founders on How To Deal with Imposter Syndrome and Self-Doubt, How To Manage Fear and Anger & Why Board Seats Are The Death of Investors
Oct 1, 2020
Insight
Boyle: Venture Capital and Journalism Hunt for the Same Three Elements
“They're the exact same job, except in journalism, you write a story, and in venture, you write a check. But you really are hunting for the same things. So the three components of a great story are strong protagonists, A contrarian hook or thesis that really ma…”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 7:01 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
Oct 1, 2020 negative
Disclosure
Boyle Avoids Investing in Binary Regulatory Bets
“There are companies that have been successful off of pure regulatory change, but I think that often leads to a lot of people running towards a regulatory change, and that's not sort of the way that I invest.”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 22:42 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
Oct 1, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Boyle: General Catalyst Didn't Lead an Anduril Round Until Series B
“With Anderil, we invested in the seed. We also invested in the A, but we didn't lead around until the series B when we co-led with Founders Fund.”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 27:11 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
Oct 1, 2020 positive
Opinion
Boyle: Hemant Taneja Is the Best Proactive Investor in Venture Capital
“Hey Montanesia is the best proactive investor in the business. He's someone who can see the future 10 years out and build companies from scratch as a co-founder with them and see them come to fruition.”
Katherine Boyle Oct 1, 2020 ▶ 11:06 20VC: What Is Founder Narrative Fit and How to Detect and Invest In It, How To Avoid Consensus Thinking When Investing, Price Sensititivity; When To Pay Up vs Stay Disciplined & From New York Times To General Catalyst; Why Venture and Journalism are Not S
Dec 28, 2020 bullish
Disclosure
Clark: General Catalyst is Livongo's largest shareholder during Teladoc merger
“And you may know that we're the largest shareholders in Livongo. Livongo is merging now with Teladoc, and there's like a whole thesis behind that.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 23:52 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020
Disclosure
Clark: General Catalyst closed multiple deals without meeting founders in person
“I've done seven or eight investments, I guess, since I started. Four or five of those are during the pandemic, right? That ballpark. And I've done three or four of these now without ever meeting the founder.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 14:05 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020 neutral
Insight
Clark: Board management should feel like jazz improv, not an orchestra
“But I think when this is done well, for the board member, it feels like you have the space to think, to collaborate, to contribute. More like improv. If you want to compare this to different kinds of bands, right, it's more like jazz, less like orchestra.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 29:18 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020 positive
Disclosure
Clark: General Catalyst incubated healthcare startup Commure in-house
“Yeah, that's a great question, and Commure is a unique-ish example in the sense that Commure is a company that Hamath and I started within General Catalyst. It's a quote, what we call hatch, Right. It's an incubation from within the firm.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 16:58 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020
Insight
Clark: Check pre-pandemic traction to identify durable consumer demand
“I think that one of the things you can look at is there evidence of something working before the pandemic hit to distinguish between are we looking at acceleration because of the forced onboarding, or are we looking at something that has been created just duri…”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 23:32 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020 neutral
Insight
Clark: Even positive unexpected surprises erode board trust
“The number one piece of advice I can give founders is around managing their boards is don't surprise anybody. Just no surprises. Even good surprises erode trust.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 28:38 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Dec 28, 2020 positive
Insight
Clark: Venture capital should underwrite engineering risk, not science risk
“We're not that interested in investing in science because we don't know how that's going to turn out. I am interested in investing in engineering.”
Quentin Clark Dec 28, 2020 ▶ 21:54 20VC: Lessons From Working with Bill Gates, How To Lead Without Authority and The Difference Between Leadership and Management & How Fundraising Changes In A COVID World with Quentin Clark, Managing Director @ General Catalyst
Jan 25, 2021 negative
Disclosure
Libin: I was not a very good VC at General Catalyst
“I don't think it was a very good VC.”
Phil Libin Jan 25, 2021 ▶ 17:12 20VC: Evernote & mmhmm Founder Phil Libin on Why We are Beginning a Multi-Trillion Dollar Restructuring of the World, Why Shortcuts are the Biggest Mistakes Startups Make & The Future of Video and The Unbundling of Zoom
Oct 25, 2021
Assertion Supported
Deliveroo raised over $1.7 billion prior to its 2021 IPO
“Prior to their IPO earlier this year, Will raised over 1.7 billion dollars for the company from some of the best in the business, including Excel, Index, General Catalyst, Green Oaks and more.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 25, 2021 ▶ 0:19 20VC: Deliveroo Founder Will Shu on The IPO This Year, The Rise of Quick Commerce and The Fierce Competition with Uber Eats
May 16, 2022
Insight
Fialkow: Co-founders must prioritize business needs over protecting their friendship
“Most people who start business with their friends, I think, can make a mistake. They say, let the business never get in the way of the friendship. We said the exact opposite. Let the friendship never get in the way of business.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 6:52 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 positive
Disclosure
General Catalyst LPs stayed supportive despite the firm's market underperformance
“We had a tough fundraise. The market was off. We didn't have a lot of liquidity. And we went to our LPs and said, hey, things aren't great right now. We're really, like, feel like we underperformed the market over the last couple of years. But, and they all sa…”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 30:37 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022
Disclosure
Fialkow was a struggling documentary filmmaker at age 24
“Can I tell you what life was like for me when I was 24? You know, I was a filmmaker trying to make documentary films, and it was like I couldn't make a living. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do, and I had a couple of ideas.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 20:01 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022
Insight
Fialkow: Founders unable to endure extreme stress will fail regardless of idea
“The first thing you've got to evaluate is, is this person that's sitting in front of me Capable of the emotional, physical, and mental stress that it's going to take to build a business. Binary. If they're not that person, regardless of how good their idea is,…”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 24:41 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022
Assertion Supported
Fialkow built and sold four companies before founding General Catalyst
“Prior to founding General Catalyst with Joel Cutler, David was a serial entrepreneur. Building and selling no less than four successful companies.”
Harry Stebbings May 16, 2022 ▶ 0:26 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 neutral
Insight
Fialkow: Great early-stage startup teams operate like cults
“Great early stage companies are like cults. They all believe, they believe with a capital B.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 25:13 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 negative
Insight
Fialkow: Inviting acquaintances to curated dinners ruins group openness and dynamic
“If I bring two people that know each other, they're immediately going to change the dynamic of the group.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 17:32 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 neutral
Disclosure
General Catalyst launched without a master plan to hatch Boston startups
“We had no plan. We had no strategy. We had no business model. All we knew is that we were going to take some of the money we just made selling our travel business, and we were going to hatch companies in Boston.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 9:36 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 negative
Insight
Fialkow: Founders should ignore TAM and CAC/LTV in early pitches
“So the first thing I would say is forget about markets. Forget about TAM. Forget about CAC LTV. Forget about all the things you think traditional people are going to ask you. Paint a picture for me. What do you want to build?”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 26:47 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022
Insight
Fialkow: Great founders do not need to be well-rounded
“Building a business is not like playing tennis. To be a tennis player, you have to learn how to head back in. You can't get away with it. Business is not like that. You don't have to be well-rounded. I mean, obviously, I'm a good example of that, right? What y…”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 21:03 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Accel's Jim Swartz warned General Catalyst to expand beyond Boston
“Jim Schwartz told us in the summer of 2011 that if we didn't open a presence in California because we were only in Boston, we would never survive as a firm.”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 38:10 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 16, 2022
Assertion Supported
General Catalyst's first $70M fund was structured as an LLC
“Well, the first fund was probably seventy million dollars, and it wasn't even in GPLP, it was an LLC, because of course we were building a company, which is the only thing we thought we knew how to do. It was seventy million, most of it was from us, and then a…”
David Fialkow May 16, 2022 ▶ 10:59 20VC: The Founding of General Catalyst, What it Takes to Build a Firm That Stands the Test of Time, Why VCs Need to Give Founders Greater Permission to Go For It & Why Venture Capital is Like Tennis with David Fialkow, Co-Founder @ General Catalyst
May 29, 2023 positive
Disclosure
General Catalyst and True Ventures accept pre-seed terms set by Besvinick
“In fact, I've had general catalyst, true ventures, tribe, lower carbon that have come in after me after I've said yes and have not altered the terms of those rounds.”
Adam Besvinick May 29, 2023 ▶ 37:47 Adam Besnivick: How to Invest in Pre-Seed & Seed Stage Companies; Looking Glass Capital | E1020 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 17, 2023 neutral
Assertion Supported
Kaden: General Catalyst bought a hospital system to expand its platform
“You see that with General Catalyst buying a hospital system, right?”
Rebecca Kaden Nov 17, 2023 ▶ 14:45 Roundtable #6 with Rebecca Kaden, Nicole Quinn, Eurie Kim, Harry Stebbings | E1083 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jan 20, 2025 negative
Insight
Kanji: VC Employees Optimize for Fast Markups Over Real Returns
“If you're the general employee, you optimize for getting to the next career ladder, and how do you show that you can get to the next career ladder? You do a deal, and then General Catalyst, or Index, or Kleiner, or Sequoia, or Andreessen, I mean, there are so …”
Hussein Kanji Jan 20, 2025 ▶ 2:31 Hussein Kanji, Founder @Hoxton Ventures: Why AI Means London Can Compete with the US | E1248 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 12, 2025 positive
Prediction Open · timeframe May 2035
Akhund: Multi-stage venture capital funds will inevitably go public
“It seems inevitable that a few of these multi-stage funds will IPO and be public companies, right? Like we had some stuff about GC doing it. Yeah. I think that's just going to happen.”
Immad Akhund May 12, 2025 ▶ 53:59 20VC Exclusive: Mercury Founder Launches First $26M Fund with Immad Akhund · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jul 3, 2025 neutral
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Melio Held $650M Total Preference Stack Prior to Sale
“The pref stack here was six 50. So it was six 50 total pref stack, and then the last round was four billion by GC”
Harry Stebbings Jul 3, 2025 ▶ 28:19 Figma’s IPO: The Full Breakdown & Why Melio’s $2.5BN Acquisition is “Discouraging” · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 4, 2025 bearish
Insight
Owning 10% of a $20B Company Returns 0.2x for a $7B Fund
“If you're a GC, their last fundraiser, seven billion, say you own 10% of a Figma, which is a generational company, two billion, you know, they're going to take 20% of that. I mean, you've returned what? Point zero point two X. You need 15 Figma's.”
Miles Dieffenbach Aug 4, 2025 ▶ 46:06 Miles Dieffenbach: Inside Carnegie Mellon’s $4BN Endowment & The Math Behind DPI, TVPI, Illiquidity · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 15, 2025
Disclosure
Yuri Sagalov invested $500k in Legora the day Junestrand landed in SF
“And then Yuri Sagalov, who's now the, I think, head of early stage at GC, he did a 500 K safe on us in February or January, the same day I landed in SF.”
Max Junestrand Aug 15, 2025 ▶ 24:03 20VC: 15 Term Sheets in 7 Days and Choosing Benchmark | Harvey vs Legora: Who Wins Legal and How to Play When You Have $600M Less Funding | Are AI Models Plateauing Today | Building a 9-9-6 Culture From Stockholm with Max Junestrand
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: Current tech shift is as consequential as electricity 100 years ago
“Cause I do think we are building the future. It's an amazing time. We will shape what this You know, society is going to look like for probably a hundred years. I mean, this shift is as big as what electricity was, you know, a hundred, 150 years ago.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 59:31 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
General Catalyst acquired three seed funds to maintain early-stage focus
“And if you think about the last two years, you know, bringing on Jeanette and La Familia, Yuri and Wayfinder and Neeraj and Venture Highway, we've tried to really make sure at our core, we remain very Committed to doing the seed work with the same intensity an…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 2:54 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Disclosure
General Catalyst's Customer Value Fund backs profitable, moderate-growth SaaS startups
“And that's where we actually, you know have also sort of made sure our customer value fund supports those types of founders as well. We obviously want to support the fastest growing companies in venture, but also the ones that are fundamentally good businesses…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 56:05 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 negative
Opinion
Taneja: General Catalyst loses right to exist without early-stage excellence
“But if we don't do early stage investing well, we will lose the right to exist, and we're paranoid about that.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 3:27 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Assertion Supported
General Catalyst claims unique portfolio of US, European, and Indian defense primes
“I think we're the only firm that's invested in a defense prime in US, Europe, and India. We did Andrel, we did, you know, invested in Helsing, and we invested in a company called Rafi in India.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 12:08 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: Enterprise AI transformation requires four key operational elements
“When you think about transforming an enterprise with AI, you actually have to do four things correctly. Okay. First is you have to get your data infrastructure ready so that your technology, your company can adopt AI. Your data readiness is huge. Infrastructur…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 14:35 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst's top early investments yielded hundreds of X returns
“Our best companies that, you know, like Livongo and Circle and others, you know, Stripe and others, our first rounds were not 25 X. They were, you know, hundreds of X in terms of returns.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 37:53 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Disclosure
General Catalyst missed $1B in returns by not doubling down on a decacorn
“We have a company that's, you know, a Decacorn now and actually called the investor who led it at GC saying congratulations. You're gonna make over a billion dollars on this investment. And you're an idiot because you gave up not making the second billion. You…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:03:43 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 negative
What-if
Taneja: Passing on Dropbox's first round cost $2B in returns
“That was the first million dollars, would have been a two billion dollar return because I'm like, what is this thing?”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:30:57 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2030
General Catalyst will cap venture fund sizes to preserve elite performance
“So what we have done is if you look at our overall you know, assets under management, we've basically said we're not gonna make our venture funds bigger. What we're going to do is actually keep the size of the venture fund where we think it can be to create el…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 6:43 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst invested in Anthropic at a $60 billion valuation
“Look, we invested in a topic only you know, less than a year ago at the sixty billion dollar round,”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 33:26 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst has invested $1B across funds into Stripe
“Stripe. You know, it's about a billion dollars.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:05:07 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Taneja: US is expanding its competitive moat through AI and energy
“Look I, my belief is that US is very well positioned. We have energy, we have AI, we have the largest market, we have the largest entrepreneurial ecosystem. You know, in a lot of ways, we're very well positioned. And I think in the short term, in some ways, we…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 25:51 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Prediction Not checkable as stated
General Catalyst limits single-company exposure to 10-15% per fund
“I try not to have more than 10 to 15% in a single company in a fund.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:05:41 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: General Catalyst will hold Stripe for 25 years
“You know, we'll, we'll have a 25 year kind of hold probably on, on Stripe in some form or the other.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:33:13 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2035
Taneja: Stripe will become a $1 trillion company in 10 years
“I think Stripe's gonna be a trillion dollar company. He's gotta give it 10 years, you know, so I'm, we're, it's a compounding business that, you know, Patrick and John always say infrastructure is hard, but it also compounds, and they're sort of steadily just …”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:32:52 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst made billions on Livongo across two funds
“A few billion. It returned so Luongo sat in two funds. It turned one of the funds approximately three or four X, and it returned one of the other funds maybe close to one X. I have to go back and look at the numbers, but I think that's about generally right.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 8:34 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 neutral
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst partners earn less than $3M to $5M salaries
“Less than that.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:12:36 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: Offshored labor will be brought onshore via AI productivity
“Our whole thesis around AI rollups was everywhere you offshored for labor benefit, you're going to onshore for AI productivity.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 15:49 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 neutral
Insight
Taneja: Mid-growth tech companies are trapped between venture capital and IPOs
“And then there is the, as I said, this bloated, set of companies that are good companies, that'll compound at 20, 25%, maybe, maybe forever, that have no access to public market because they're too small. They're not a billion dollar company growing 30% a year…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:09:09 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: VC win rate above 30% signals proper deal competition
“If I'm not losing, I'm not winning. Because the very best founders go meet all the five to seven great firms and they pick one. So theoretically, your win rate, as long as it's over, over 30%, you're actually maybe in the right fight.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:29:50 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2028
General Catalyst's top early fund expected to return 13x to 15x
“Yeah, that fund is one of our Two or three best funds, and just to tell you what was in it was Livongo was in that, Snap was in that, Circle was in that, Gusto I think I'm missing a few others. It's probably gonna end up being a, you know, 13 to 15 X fund.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:23:36 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: General Catalyst aims to be the top seed firm globally
“Our aspirations in venture capital is to be the best seed firm in the world or second best after you.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:26:42 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2045
Taneja: General Catalyst expects to invest $300B-$500B over 20 years
“Over the next 20 years, if I look at GC, we'll probably invest, what, 300,000,000,500 billion dollars into the world sort of helping shape what AI does for society.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:36:56 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst regrets passing on OpenAI over corporate structure concerns
“I look, that structure, many people overthought it, and I overthought it as well, and there's a lot going on on that platform that's changing the world, and I don't have a front row seat. So, yeah, I do regret that a little bit.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:23:13 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Prediction Open · timeframe Sep 2030
Taneja: General Catalyst will participate in products expanding retail tech access
“So I fully expect That you will start seeing products that give retail access to the best companies in in technology, and we will definitely engage in that because it's the right thing to do.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:10:25 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: General Catalyst aspires to operate with the same rigor as Stripe
“GC should be running with the same rigor these companies run. And I think we still run pretty good. We're still a very messy company, but the aspiration is we want to run with the same rigor as, you know, companies like Stripe do.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:28:21 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Taneja: LPs programmatically sell distributed stock immediately post-IPO
“Because a lot of the LPs will have their public sleeve and their private sleeve. You give them stock, they'll sell it. And it's like programmatic for them.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:07:03 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Taneja: General Catalyst will evolve into a strategic conglomerate for founders
“I think GC you know, is gonna look like the most diversified solutions for founders to build enduring companies. That's the lens which would justify everything that's on it, and if you looked at it, GC as a business is gonna feel like a strategic conglomerate,…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:24:15 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: Technical debt in AI now accumulates in one year, not ten
“Even though technical debt used to be on the order of a decade of coding, not a year of coding, can you actually overcome that and make sure you remain well positioned on the new sort of technology stacks or not?”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 32:47 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: Venture firms scale capital to double down on winning companies
“If you're in the best companies, You really should be buying into them constantly. In fact, that's the reason to scale capital. The reason to scale capital isn't, ah, to be a low margin business, it's because you want to have capital for the very best ones and…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:04:15 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: Newer AI model capabilities outweigh a year of GTM head start
“So the go to market advantage you may have created in a year having started on GPT versus five might be anemic compared to the technology advantage that you have. If you start in the GPT five or the choices you make and how fast you can move because the models…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 32:06 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Assertion Supported
Taneja: General Catalyst operates a rapidly growing wealth management business
“We do, yeah, yeah, and that's, you know, it's actually growing rapidly. It's a you know, a fairly large business at this point.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:14:20 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Disclosure
Taneja: General Catalyst joined every funding round for Helsing and Anduril
“We invested in Helsing. You know, Jeanette has seeded that, if you remember before, and we've invested that in all the rounds that they've raised since then. If you look at Andrel, same thing. We seeded that, and we invested in every round that they've raised …”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 9:49 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Disclosure
General Catalyst reinvests all management fees instead of distributing them
“By the way, we, we're not, just to say, like, in our business, we don't distribute any fees. We invest everything back in the business, and that's a deep belief that we don't want to be in the game where the partners of the funds at General Catalyst Want bigge…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:12:10 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Assertion Supported
Taneja: General Catalyst's best returns come from seeding and creating companies
“I mean, look, our best returns have come from seeding companies like Stripe and Andurl or Creating companies like Kayak and Livongo and Camille and others, and so.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 8:08 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 positive
Insight
Taneja: Iconic VC firms require leaders to be both investors and CEOs
“I carry the title of CEO and managing director for a very intentional reason, which is General Catalyst is a business but it wouldn't be a business if it wasn't venture capital at its core. So, I am a managing director and a partner just like everybody else in…”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 1:33 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025
Insight
Taneja: Early revenue growth currently masks a lack of long-term durability
“I feel bad for investors that are learning in this era because the signals to determine if your decisions were right or wrong, you, in some ways have none. You have this, again, you have this great revenue growth to lean on, but no durability.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 58:27 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Sep 22, 2025 bullish
Opinion
Taneja: Stripe remains General Catalyst's best-performing investment of all time
“I think you would have to give that to Stripe still.”
Hemant Taneja Sep 22, 2025 ▶ 8:57 General Catalyst CEO, Hemant Taneja: Lessons Scaling GC to $40BN in AUM · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Oct 23, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stebbings: Top mega-fund partners will make over $1B in distributions
“Well, I think if you are one of the top one to three carry participants in one of the large mega platforms, be it Andreessen, be it Thrive, be it GC, I would argue that you will have more than that in distributions in the next few decades.”
Harry Stebbings Oct 23, 2025 ▶ 4:47 Why VC Today is Worse than 2021 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 10, 2025 negative
Opinion
Randle: Capital deployment velocity drives promotions at mega funds like General Catalyst
“If you were to say, well, our GC or Lightspeed or some of these mega funds is the strategy investment velocity as a north star. To answer that question, I would have you go talk to the principals, the junior partners and the associates at those firms. You inte…”
Everett Randle Nov 10, 2025 ▶ 1:00:16 Benchmark's GP, Everett Randle on Why Mega Funds Will Not Produce Good Returns · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 13, 2025 neutral
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Stebbings: VC Winners Will Be Mega-Platforms or Specialized Boutiques
“To me, I think it's like a specialization in leadership that's kind of correlated to actually the winners and losers in venture in the next 10 years, and I think the winners are Walmart, which is your mega platforms, it's your Thrive, it's your Lightspeed, it'…”
Harry Stebbings Nov 13, 2025 ▶ 4:59 Michael Burry Shorts NVIDIA and Palantir & Has Defensibility Died in a World of AI? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 20, 2025 positive
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Coatue has raised $3B in retail venture funds
“We've got Code Two with three billion dollars now in retail funds, and we're seeing GC be very aggressive in opening up retail funds.”
Harry Stebbings Nov 20, 2025 ▶ 1:10:22 Peter Thiel and Softbank Sell NVIDIA - Why? & Why VC Will Hit $1TRN and The Opening of Retail · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Nov 21, 2025 negative
Insight
Altman: Mid-sized $700M VC funds face severe structural challenges
“I think it's really challenging to be like a seven hundred million dollar fund. Now I think you're either a really massive, powerful platform like an Andreessen or a GC Or you just have the legacy cachet, like a Sequoia or a Kleiner, or you have to be a boutiq…”
Max Altman Nov 21, 2025 ▶ 1:01:59 20VC: Max Altman on The New Seed War: Can Anyone Compete with Sequoia and a16z | Leaving $2BN on the Table with Reddit | Lessons from Backing Rippling at $25M Post | Why Climate Tech is a Mirage and Disaster
Mar 30, 2026 positive
Opinion
Andreessen: General Catalyst Is Built to Potentially Go Public
“He's certainly building a firm that could go public.”
Marc Andreessen Mar 30, 2026 ▶ 40:31 Marc Andreessen: Will a16z Go Public & Why Labour Displacement with AI is Wrong? · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
May 11, 2026 positive
Disclosure
Forquer: Legora leverages investors like Bessemer and GC to close deals
“A hundred percent. I mean, with our, the cool thing about the space that we're occupying is because the VCs themselves, like if you think about Iconic, General Catalyst, Bessemer, they have huge legal networks themselves. They're big spenders on legal services…”
Patrick Forquer May 11, 2026 ▶ 32:40 Inside Legora: Jude Law Generated $50M Pipeline | Are They Undervalued at $5.5BN? | Patrick Forquer · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Jun 1, 2026 neutral
Assertion Not publicly verifiable
General Catalyst issued Mercor's seed term sheet at $23M valuation
“They gave us a term sheet within 36 hours for 2.3 million dollars at a twenty three million dollar post-money valuation.”
Brendan Foody Jun 1, 2026 ▶ 28:03 Mercor CEO: Why Application Layer Companies Have No Moat & The Cost of Hiring AI Researchers · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Aug 27, 2026 bullish
Assertion Partly supported
Stebbings: Mercor Crosses $2B ARR and Raises at $20B Valuation
“I'm an investor in McCaw. I never thought this would be as big as it has got as quickly as hit, as it has done. It's crossing out two, two and a half billion ARR. They're doing a new round led by General Catalyst at twenty billion.”
Harry Stebbings Aug 27, 2026 ▶ 13:25 Anthropic's $30T Assumption & OpenAI Confirms IPO | Why Customer Service & Robotics are Overinflated
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